The support is amazing. Even if you ask a stupid question, they come back really quickly and are really helpful. of mistakes made.
A task too far
For a medium sized GP practice with 7 partner GPs, the Abington Park Surgery has an impressively complex rota, largely driven by the GP partnership share model, registrars and a nine-week rota period. This meant that it was taking Michelle 3 days every nine weeks to prepare the next rota. "As the jobs mounted up, something had to give", says Michelle, when describing what prompted her to look for rota software.
A personal pressure
Abington Park Surgery started using OmniRota in 2013. Apart from the obvious benefit of saving time, (the rotas now take 20 minutes to run), Michelle Carroll cites the fact that all the complex rules are no longer stored only in her head and she alone doesn't have to try to remember them all whenever she draws up a rota; a big personal advantage of having the software and avoids a key man dependency for the practice.
It also makes planning much easier. Whilst changes are inevitable, the fact that the changes can be processed using OmniRota means that all of the impacts of a change can be considered and planned for; a huge plus for her GPs' workload.
“It makes it easier to plan - for example, when we have a registrar we might have found that we didn't have enough cover but now we can properly plan for it - it makes the workload easier for the doctors. Omni is really easy to change and it's much more comprehensive now.”
Let the computer do the hard work
A rota is now just four clicks away, Michelle explains. She can then make manual changes or make plans to deal with any exceptions or gaps. Michelle then emails the rota out and the doctors see the final rotas through their iPhones.
“The doctors see it through their iphones. That works really well and I print off a pdf file.”
Taking the plunge
Michelle believes that people often shy away from taking the plunge into rota software because they can't quite believe that it's capable of doing the job.
“At first I didn't trust it. I didn't think it would work. Now I've got it though, I love it and wouldn't do without it."
Support when you need it
OmniRota support is at the end of a phone or on email if needed to help answer questions or make any rule changes for future rotas.
"At first I didn't trust it. I didn't think it would work. Now I've got it though, I love it and wouldn't do without it."